Grieving family and friends have been posting tributes on social media to 13-year-old Dijonae White, who law enforcement officials say was shot dead by her nine-year-old boy brother after an argument over a video game controller.

The boy grabbed a gun when White would not give up the video game controller when her brother wanted it on Saturday, Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell said.

He said the boy shot the teenager, a student at Tupelo Middle School in Mississippi, in the back of the head and that the bullet entered her brain.

Dijonae White, 13, from Mississippi (pictured left with her mother), was shot dead by her nine-year-old boy brother after an argument over a video game controller

A nine-year-old boy shot and killed his 13-year-old sister, Dijonae White, after an argument over a video game controller at their home Okolona, Mississippi

She was rushed to Le Bonheur's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where she succumbed to her injuries shortly before 7pm on Sunday.

Their mother, Chalandra White, was in another room at the home in Okolona feeding lunch to other children when it happened, Sheriff Cantrell told WTVA.

Authorities said they do not yet know how the firearm used in the shooting had been accessed.

The sheriff added that the circumstances of the shooting are still being investigated.